When Saavik asks Kirk for suggestions as to how to proceed in the simulator, he replies "Prayer, Mister Saavik, the Klingons don't take prisoners." Yeah, actually they do. On Organia, for example, they took hostages and shot them whenever there was an act of rebellion. In ST III the Klingon commander had David, Spock and Saavik held prisoner. Archer was held prisoner by the Klingons once and put on trial, as was Kirk in ST VI. Kirk was even sentenced to imprisonment at his trial, in a prison, full of other prisoners.

Are we seriously to believe that nobody on the Reliant knew the Ceti Alpha system was the site of Khan's 'colony'? Khan hijacked the entire Enterprise, surely Kirk must have submitted a report detailing that incident and his decision to strand the group on Ceti Alpha V, right? So did nobody on the Reliant think to look the system up before they went there? For that matter, if Chekov was around when Khan was dropped off (see below for discussion of that), why doesn't the name "Ceti Alpha" ring a bell with him?

And even if they didn't look up whether there were colonies on any of the planets for some reason, surely they would at least count the planets in the system when they arrived and notice one was missing!

Along those lines, the standard naming convention in Trek is (Star name) (order from the sun outwards). So Earth, being the third planet out from the star known as Sol, would be Sol 3. (They actually use Roman Numerals, but I'll use regular ones for the sake of simplicity.) Mars would be Sol 4, Neptune would be Sol 8, etc. Khan and his band were marooned on Ceti Alpha 5. Six months later, Ceti Alpha 6 exploded. Then the Reliant arrived, intending to investigate Ceti Alpha 6. Only since Ceti Alpha 6 wasn't there any more, they went to Ceti Alpha 5 thinking it was Ceti Alpha 6. So how does that make any sense at all? Even if the 6th planet is missing, how do you then mistake the 5th one for the 6th one? Wouldn't you still count out from the sun and then think that it's Ceti Alpha 7 that is actually Ceti Alpha 6? I mean, that would still be utterly stupid, because the 7th planet would still be in a completely different orbit than the place where the 6th planet was. But at least the problem then is that you didn't bother to look up the planetary orbits, rather than the fact that nobody on the ship can successfully count to six!

Of course, Khan does claim that the shock of the explosion shifted the orbit of Ceti Alpha 5. So are we supposed to believe that it shifted the orbit SO much that it actually moved Ceti Alpha 5 out right the way past the empty space where Ceti Alpha 6 was, then on out past Ceti Alpha 7 - which is the only way you could possibly think Ceti Alpha 5 was Ceti Alpha 6. But if so, then that's just absolutely ridiculous. Explosions in space don't actually produce a 'shock', because there's nothing for a shockwave to travel through. So you'd pretty much have to have a big chunk of Ceti Alpha 6 hit Ceti Alpha 5 with enough energy (and in the right direction) to boost its orbit right the way out to past Ceti Alpha 7. And do so without, say, smashing the planet into a million pieces when it hit it. And still leaving the environment of the planet survivable (consider the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Thosuands of times bigger that all the nuclear bombs built in the history of the world combined. This would be quadrillions of times bigger than that.) Which is impossible on just about every level.

And how does a planet just explode, anyway? Planets aren't made of dynamite! Earth has been around for a very long time, it's never just decided to explode!

So Khan says he remembers meeting Chekov on the Enterprise during TOS when he meets him on Ceti Alpha V. However, the Chekov character wasn't invented until after the episode in which Khan features. This isn't to say that he wasn't on the ship but unseen, though.

So, why exactly doesn't Kirk raise the shields when Reliant approaches the Enterprise? Okay, I get that part of the point of the film is that he hasn't been in space for a long while, and he's super rusty - in the course of the film he gradually returns to the kick ass awesome officer he used to be. So maybe he just forgot or something. But... Saavik points out to him that regulations require him to raise shields under these circumstances. She says it right there on the bridge in public, and the only response she gets is Spock telling her that Kirk is "well aware of the regulations." Well no Spock, apparently he isn't well aware of the regulations, or else he would be following them! Or he is aware of them, and he's just thinking "ah, screw it, I'll do what I like." Which, if so, means that Kirk is guilty of professional negligence and incompetence which resulted in serious damage to a Federation military asset and the death of at least one cadet. That's an instant court martial and goodbye career moment there, surely? In fact had he raised shields as soon as they detected Reliant, it's arguable that they would have crippled or destroyed Reliant right there, or at least driven it off with little or no damage to themselves. In which case they could have gone on to Regula One and protected the station and planetoid from Reliant until reinforcements arrived, which would mean Khan would never have gotten hold of the Genesis device. And Spock would not have been killed.

Great Moment :

Spock's death scene.

The battle scenes were awesome.

Body Count :

Spock! Preston, Khan and his entire crew, Captain Terrell, at least seven members of the Genesis team plus a small animal indigenous to Ceti Alpha V. It seems likely that several members of the Enterprise crew died in Khan's attacks.

Factoid :

This is Kirsti Alley's first film role.

Plotline

The film opens with a young Vulcan woman sitting in the Big Chair on the Enterprise, commanding the ship on an apparently routine patrol near the Klingon Neutral Zone. The ship receives a distress call from the freighter Kobyashi Maru - the ship has hit a gravitic mine and is adrift in the neutral zone. The commander, whose name is Saavik, orders the Enterprise to violate the zone despite objections from Sulu.

Within minutes of their crossing the border, three Klingon battlecruisers arrive on the scene. As Saavik attempts to communicate with them the Klingons open fire, damaging the Enterprise. Nothing she tries has any effect and within moments the bridge crew are dropping like flies as explosions rock the ship. She orders all hands to abandon the Enterprise to its fate...

...only to have the view screen slide open and Admiral Kirk step through and order an end to the simulation. We learn that the whole thing has been a test of Saaviks command abilities. She objects that the test was not fair as there was no way to win, only to have Kirk inform her that this is the whole point of the Kobyashi Maru scenario. It is a character test, and Kirk declares that how a cadet faces death is at least as important as how she faces life.

The simulator is located on Earth, at Starfleet academy; Admiral Kirk is apparently in command of the facility after having given up the Captaincy of the Enterprise in favour of Spock. It is Kirks birthday, and he receives a gift from Spock - a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities". The two part, and Kirk heads home to meet with Bones. Despite the occasion Kirk feels depressed at the onset of old age, and Bones advises him that he should try to regain his command.

Meanwhile, the Miranda class USS Reliant is engaged in a mission for the mysterious "Genesis Project". The ship is attempting to find a planet which has absolutely no trace of life, apparently a difficult task. Their latest target, Ceti Alpha VI, looks promising except for a single localized reading. The ships Captain beams down with the Executive Officer, one Commander Pavel Chekov. They find a desolate windswept desert, but quickly locate a group of cargo containers. As they investigate they are captured by a group of mysterious robed figures.

As the leader reveals himself Chekov gasps in surprise - it is Khan, the genetically engineered tyrant left on Ceti Alpha V by Captain Kirk many years before. Khan reveals that this planet is in fact Ceti Alpha V - shortly after Kirk left Ceti Alpha VI exploded, laying waste to the planet. Many of Khans people died in the aftermath, and Khan has nurtured a fanatical hatred of Kirk ever since. Khan introduces the two to Ceti Alpha V's only remaining indigenous life form - a small slug like creature which burrows into the brain through the ear, rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion before killing them. With Chekov and Terrell now under control, Khan captures the Reliant. He heads directly for the Genesis Project research centre.

Back at Earth Kirk is on an inspection tour of the Enterprise to asses its cadet crew on a training cruise. Saavik pilots the ship out of Spacedock, much to Kirks consternation, but things proceed smoothly and the ship is soon on its way. Kirk bumps into Saavik in a turbolift, and she questions how he performed when he took the Kobyashi Maru test - a question he refuses to answer. Shortly afterwards they receive an emergency call from Carol Marcus, leader of the Genesis Project. She is complaining that Reliant is on its way to confiscate the Genesis Project, apparently on Kirks authority, but her transmission is jammed by the Reliant and she can get no answer.

Kirk assumes command of the Enterprise and heads for Regula at warp speed. He shows Spock and McCoy a computer record of the application for funding for Genesis. The project is intended to create a small device called the Genesis torpedo which can be detonated on a planet, causing it to be almost instantly transformed into whatever type of world the designers care to create. But the weapon potential is terrible - the device will destroy and reform an inhabited planet just as easily as it would a lifeless surface. While the officers debate the morality of the technology, sensors detect the Reliant approaching.

Thinking that the ship is friendly, Kirk fails to raise his shields and Khan cripples the Enterprise with phaser and photon torpedo fire. Khan demands the secrets of the Genesis technology from Kirk but the Admiral manages to outwit him and land some heavy blows on the Reliant in turn, forcing Khan to retreat. Kirk proceeds to Regula and finds the stations entire crew dead, tortured by Khan for Genesis information. He locates Terrell and Chekov on board, claiming that they escaped from Khan while he was there. Kirk orders the Enterprise to wait a few hours then head back to get reinforcements. As they search the station they discover the transporter has beamed something down deep inside the planetoid Regula is orbiting. Kirk follows, and finds Carol Marcus and her son David in a cavern with the Genesis torpedo.

Unfortunately, Chekov and Terrell are still under Khans command and turn their phasers on Kirk. But as Khan orders them to kill Kirk via a comm. link, Terrell commits suicide and Chekovs parasite forces its way out of his ear. Khan beams the Genesis device up and leaves Kirk marooned, but when he goes to destroy the Enterprise he cannot find it.

On the planetoid we discover that David is Kirks son, from a romance he had with Carol many years ago - although David doesn't know this. Kirk once again expresses his regret at how his life has gone, saying he feels old and tired. Carol shows Kirk the Genesis cave - a space miles across filled with plant life which took only a day to create - in an attempt to make him feel batter. While they are in the cave Saavik once again questions Kirk about the Kobyashi Maru test, and McCoy reveals that Kirk is the only Cadet in history to beat the no-win scenario - by cheating, reprogramming the simulator so it was possible to rescue the ship. Kirk tells a stunned Saavik that he doesn't believe there is such a thing as a no win scenario in real life, and to prove the point hails the Enterprise and asks to be beamed up. He explains to Saavik that they have been lying over the comm. channels to trick Khan into believing the ship is far more damaged that it really is. Instead of leaving, Spock has hidden the ship beneath Regula.

Even so, the Enterprise is still at a big disadvantage. Kirk heads to the nearby Mutara Nebula, provoking Khan into following him with some well chosen insults. In the nebula both ships are blinded and shields are useless, but the odds are at least even. The ships pound on each other as opportunity allows, until finally Spock points out that Khans inexperience is leading him to think two dimensionally. Kirk ducks under the Reliant and comes up behind it, damaging the ship badly with photon torpedoes.

Khan refuses to surrender, and instead activates the Genesis torpedo. The Enterprise attempts to flee, but with main power off-line and no way to get to the engine room because of radioactive contamination, they don't have the speed to escape. Spock leaves the bridge, and heads for the engine room in order to perform the necessary repairs. Bones attempts to stop him, but Spock neck pinches him - and before going into the room he mind melds with the doctor, saying the single word "remember...".

With only seconds to spare Spock repairs the engines, and the ship escapes the massive detonation. As a new planet forms behind them, Kirk races down to the engine room to find Spock dying of radiation sickness. The two exchange an emotional farewell, with Spock admitting that "you have been, and always shall be, my friend" as he dies.

The funeral is held in the ships torpedo bay. Kirk makes a speech in which he says that "of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most Human", and Spock is launched into space. As the Enterprise leaves orbit, Kirk says that he feels re-invigorated by recent events.

Analysis

This film is a roller coaster ride, and is usually voted as the fans favourite film. Many of the mistakes of the original are corrected - most importantly the basic story is a very strong and relatively fast paced one. The cool colours of the first film are replaced by a much brighter look, and the pyjama uniforms are replaced with much more military looking outfits. Wrath of Khan also has something The Motion Picture lacked entirely - an excellent bad guy. V'Ger is mostly an unknown quantity with no apparent motivation, and while it is established as being extremely powerful its lack of any real hostility removes any real sense of threat. While Khan is a much more limited threat, he is at least a very positive and determined one. Ricardo Montelban puts in an excellent performance - he is truly convincing as the vengance-obsessed Khan, spitting hatred at Kirk right up until the end.

The film also neatly tackles a rather obvious pitfall. Even this early on in the series there was considerable comment about how "past it" the original crew were getting - jokes about expanding waistlines and wigs, that kind of thing. The Wrath of Khan hits this issue head on by making it an integral part of the story; we see the effects his advancing age is having on Kirk in several key scenes. Best is the one with McCoy on his birthday - the scene is well written and both Shatner and Kelley put in good performances here. One nice touch is the ticking clock you can just hear in the background throughout the scene, a subtle reminder of the passing of time which troubles Kirk so much.

Early drafts of the script featured a new kind of extremely powerful weapon - essentially the Genesis Device was the 24th century equivalent of the atomic bomb. Changing it from an agent of destruction to an agent of creation (albeit with the destructive possibilities still there) brought it much more in line with the Trek ethos, and was a very clever move.

The film is not without its occasional flaws, however. The worst of these is the Reliants mistaking Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI. The excuse given for this is that when Ceti Alpha VI exploded, Ceti Alpha V was shifted into a new orbit. There are things that could make a planet "explode" - collision with a sufficiently large and high speed body would do it - but it beggars belief that this could cause a massive change in another worlds orbit, at least in the way the film depicts. For Reliant to mistake one planet for the other, the very least that would be required would be to have Ceti Alpha V shifted out into Ceti Alpha VI's orbit, a distance which is presumably at least a few million kilometres or so, arriving in the exact position at the exact time needed to be mistaken for the other planet. But even assuming that the orbits and explosion were such that this happened, it beggars belief that the two planets are exactly the same size, have exactly the same mass, exactly the same surface geography, etc. Not to mention that the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI should have left a new asteroid belt... Reliants crew should have known something was up before they ever even entered the system. Still, the error is not a film-killer since it only affects one point of the plot.

The most noticeable issue as far as effects are concerned is that many of the shots used are copied from the first film. Given the way that TMP's budget spiralled it's no surprise that Meyer kept a tight rein on this one, and the re-use of effects has no real negative impact on the film since it's limited to just a few scenes. Still, I always wonder what it would have been like it this film had been given the sort of budget that TMP had.

Overall then, The Wrath of Khan is an excellent film and certainly one of my favourites.

Special Edition

The special edition DVD of Star Trek II is an impressive release, although it is not quite up to the standard set by The Motion Picture special edition. The movie itself features some additional material, but this is restricted to one or two lines or short scenes. Saavick and Spock's talking in Vulcan about Kirk shortly after he begins his inspection is the longest addition. There are a few lines in the engine room which establish that the young cadet Scotty later carries to the bridge is indeed Scotty's nephew. There is a little extra on Regula One, Bones has one or two more lines regarding the implications of the Genesis device, Kirk says a line in sickbay about how he beat Khan's initial attack... altogether these changes probably add no more than a couple of minutes to the movie.

So don't buy this if you want to see all kinds of deleted scenes. There is a good set of extras; on the main movie there is a voiceover commentary by director Nicholas Meyer which is quite an interesting all-round view of the movie, while the equally good text commentary by Michael Okuda focuses somewhat more on the technical aspects of the sets and special effects. The bonus disk features various extras - a recently made documentary focuses around Harve Bennet, Micholas Meyer, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Another documentary focuses on the visual effects created for the movie - lots of detail about the Motarra Nebula here, as well as plenty of shots of ILM doing model work. There is also a set of interviews with Shatner, Nimoy and DeForest Kelley which were done at the time of the movie's initial release.

Some of the extras do tend to repeat one another - for instance I lost count of how many times I was informed that the Starship Reliant design was originally the other way up, until Meyer pulled the plans out of an envelope upside down and signed off on the design without realising. But this is a pretty minor point, and overall the extras are well worth watching.

The oddest feature is a documentary about Greg Cox and Julia Echlar, who have written various Star Trek novels - this section is included because those novels include one which focuses on the Kobayashi Maru test, and a trilogy which fills in much of Khan's backstory and attempts to explain why you didn't see the Eugenics wars on CNN back in 1997. Both authors come across as more than a little off the wall, but in a fun way - and what absolutely shines through is their enthusiasm and love for Star Trek and their sense of pride at having their own little corner of it to play with.

We also have a whole slew of storyboards to watch. I've never been terribly keen on storyboards - they can be interesting if they depict alternate scenes or ideas that never made it onto film, but personally I don't see the point of looking at drawings when you can just fire up the movie and look at the finished product. The quality of the artwork on these isn't all that impressive in any case, but if storyboards are your thing then there certainly are quite a few of them here to keep you going.

Finally, there is an original trailer for the movie. Again this isn't really my thing, but it's a pretty good trailer.

All in all the ST II special edition is a good buy, with lots of stuff to interest virtually any fan. I heartily recommend it.